Posts Tagged ‘Nokia’

Back in the Symbian days, Nokia had a tool called Nokia Software Recovery. This tool allowed one to wipe the internal software, as well as data, and an option to reinstall the software. Sadly, as soon as Lumia devices hit the market, Nokia had removed the tool. Earlier this year, Nokia Care re-released the Software Recovery Tool for Lumia devices, and today the software has been updated to support Windows Phone 8.1.

First spotted by the guys over at WPCentral, the tool will help you recover your phone if it is having software issues or problems while installing an update. “Use the Nokia Software Recovery Tool to recover your phone if you have software or software update problems. If your phone is not responding, it appears to be stuck or is not starting you can try to recover it at home before initiating a repair,” Nokia Care writes.

The latest update (version 1.3.1) of the Nokia Software Recovery tool adds support for Windows Phone 8.1, along with up to 75% faster downloads for large software packages. You are required to be running Windows 7 or newer, have a USB cable connecting your phone to your computer, and a minimum of 3GB of free storage space. Remember, using Nokia Software Recovery Tool erases all personal content on your phone. If possible, create a backup of your phone’s content before running the tool.

Nokia has pulled its Here Maps app from the Apple App Store. Here Maps, while eclipsed by Google Maps and several iOS mapping applications in terms of popularity, was heralded for a feature that came in handy in times of limited connectivity or excessive data charges: offline navigation. Here Maps remains available on Windows Phone.

The decision to remove Here Maps from Apple’s iOS marketplace can be traced to iOS 7 and the alterations that the mobile operating system update brought to the platform, according to Nokia.

User experience

In a statement to CNET, Nokia claimed that “recent changes to iOS 7 harm the user experience”. Nokia suggests that iPhone and iPad users that are fans of their mapping technology use their mobile browsers instead.

iPhone users can continue to use the mobile web version of Here Maps under m.here.com, offering them core location needs, such as search, routing, orientation, transit information and more, all completely free of charge,” stated Nokia.

Pressed further, a Nokia spokeswoman struck a diplomatic tone. She told CNET, “We don’t want to blame Apple or iOS 7 – the app simply was not optimised for iOS 7 so we decided to remove it.”

It’s not the first time iOS has become a battleground for navigation apps.

Apple dropped Google Maps as the default mapping application for iOS 6 in 2012, and instead issued its own. Tech reviewers and users were not pleased, by and large.

Public backlash was so pronounced that Apple chief executive Tim Cook took the rare step of issuing a public apology. “We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers, and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better,” he stated in a letter posted on the Apple.com website. In its wake, the Apple Maps debacle left Richard Williamson, who managed the developer team responsible for the application, without his position at the company.

New version

Explaining why the company made the switch, Cook said his company “had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up” to natively provide features such as turn-by-turn directions and vector-based maps. “We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard,” pledged Cook.

Despite Cook’s assurances, users flocked to Google Maps when it became available again as a separate app on 13 December, 2012. After the first 48 hours of availability, the app had racked up 10 million downloads.

A year later, there are hints that Apple is taking the Maps app overhaul seriously. Apple quietly acquired BroadMap’s talent and IP this year. BroadMap is a provider of geographic information system (GIS) tools for businesses whose customers include MapQuest and Nokia.

By buying Nokia’s handset business, Microsoft may have strengthened its control over the destiny of its mobile operations and gained a potential new chief executive.

But completing the $7.2 billion transaction, the technology giant’s second-biggest after the acquisition of Skype, was a lengthy process that was anything but straightforward, people briefed on the matter said Tuesday.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, first approached Nokia about a deal during the Mobile World Congress industry conference in Barcelona this year. He emphasized to Stephen Elop, his counterpart at Nokia since 2010, that the software company needed to continue its hardware evolution by developing smaller handsets.

Integrating hardware and software, in the mold of Apple, was an important priority. But Microsoft also wanted to ensure that Elop, a former executive, would come along as part of the deal. Nokia at that point felt that Elop was compromised and arranged for Riisto Siilasmaa, the Finnish company’s chairman, to take over negotiations.

Still, the prospect of Nokia shedding its core business – the longtime pride of Finland – weighed heavily on the company. But the board sought to maximize value for shareholders, rather than letting pure nationalism govern its decisions. Overall, Nokia’s directors met around 50 times in person to discuss virtually every angle of the deal, from valuation to the potential impact on the handset unit’s 32,000 workers.

Much of the discussions were held directly between Ballmer and Siilasmaa, who met discreetly in Helsinki, London, New York and Seattle, among other cities. The negotiations featured a disparity of styles: Ballmer was his famously demonstrative and energetic self, while Siilasmaa was more reserved and polite.

The talks moved deliberately, with both sides taking time to figure out how the new structure would work and figure out how to unravel the commercial agreements.

This summer, talks between the two sides cooled, as the complexities of the transaction took a toll. They resumed in July, with a broad agreement on the principles of the transaction reached by the end of that month.